Method for providing mobile service using code-pattern

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for providing a mobile service with the use of a code pattern is disclosed In one embodiment, the method comprising: taking a photograph of a code pattern image, decoding the photographed code pattern image so as to obtain code information, extracting uniform resourse locator (URL) information corresponding to the code information, transmitting a content information request message to a service provider server corresponding to the URL information, and receiving content information corresponding to the URL information from the service provider server. According to embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to provide various and convenient mobile services to mobile terminal users using a mobile terminal, having a camera, and a code pattern containing the URL information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and is a divisional of U.S.application Ser. No. 11/221,301, filed Sep. 6, 2005 which is acontinuation Application, and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §§ 120and 365 of PCT Application No. PCT/KR2004/000481, filed on Mar. 8, 2004and published on Sep. 16, 2004, in English, which is hereby incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and a method for providingmobile services using a code pattern, and specifically, to a system anda method for providing mobile services, for example, a content providingservice, a geographical information providing service, a productinformation providing service, a taxi call service, a personal contactinformation providing service, a payment service etc, using the codepattern.

2. Description of the Related Technology

Recently, mobile terminals have been widely used and mobilecommunication technologies are also being rapidly developed. Further,various mobile services using mobile terminals are being developed.However, there are still needs for a new mobile service to providevarious content more conveniently and to allow users to use variousservices more easily.

Now, it has been common that companies, which have their own websites,provide their URL information along with product information inadvertising their products in a newspaper, magazine or catalog. This canbe an effective marketing method over a conventional advertisementmethod, which does not provide such website information, in thatcustomers can visit the websites and obtain more information about theproducts that they are considering purchasing.

However, in reality, it is less likely that a person, who reads theadvertisement having the URL information, remembers or writes down theURL, and visits the internet site and buys the product from the websitesince it is not convenient to memorize the website address. So, therehas been a need to effectively induce a person who reads theadvertisement having website information to actually buy the product.

Travelers carry a guidebook when they travel. But, due to a limitedspace, guidebooks generally do not provide detailed and helpfulinformation. Particularly, when those books contain certain foreignlanguage information, travelers usually do not find those books veryhelpful.

Furthermore, when travelers try to visit, e.g., a specific building,certain publicly available directions, for example, shown at a subwaystation, to the building, may not be sufficient for them to find theplace. Thus, there has been a demand for conveniently providingsufficient travel information to travelers.

Recently, according to the development of mobile communicationtechnology and the spread of mobile terminals, a transportation callingservice using a mobile terminal is being used. However, a user cannotuse this service if he does not know the telephone number of a callingservice company. Even if a user (traveler) knows the contactinformation, he may have difficulty in explaining his location if he isa stranger in that area. Thus, there has been a demand for convenientlyproviding a taxi calling service with the use of a mobile terminal.

Meanwhile, a bar code has been extensively used in many places, such asretail stores and book stores. Recently, a business card, containing abar code for, e.g., telephone number, has been developed. The bar codecan be used to call or store the telephone number in a mobile terminal.However, to do so, a bar code reader is required to be either embeddedin or connected to a mobile terminal.

Korean patent No. 0414523 discloses “apparatus and method of acquiringdata through codes to be extracted from the pattern.” This patentrelates to obtaining certain information from a code pattern.

SUMMARY OF CERTAIN INVENTIVE ASPECTS

One aspect of the present invention provides a method and apparatus forproviding content by using a code pattern where a mobile terminal readsthe code pattern (barcode) having prescribed information and isconnected to internet site or server according to the informationrecorded in a barcode and can get a desired content conveniently.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method and apparatusfor providing a taxi call service with the use of a code pattern, forthe purpose of allowing a user to call a taxi easily although he doesnot know the telephone number or a web site address.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method and apparatusfor providing personal connection information by using a code pattern,for the purpose of conveniently obtaining the contact information ofothers by using a code pattern.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method and apparatusfor payment by using a code pattern, for the purpose of paying billsconveniently through the Internet so that there is no need to use apaper bill (giro) through paying the bill by using a code pattern.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providing acontent using a code pattern in a user terminal, the method comprising:taking a photograph of a code pattern image, decoding the photographedcode pattern image to obtain code information, extracting URLinformation corresponding to the code information, transmitting acontent information request message to a service provider servercorresponding to the URL information, and receiving content informationcorresponding to the URL information from the service provider server.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providing acontent using a code pattern in a user terminal, the method comprising:taking a photograph of a code pattern image in which URL information ofthe web page is recorded, transmitting a content information requestmessage including the photographed code pattern image to a serviceprovider server, receiving a web page content including the contentinformation from the service provider server, wherein the serviceprovider server analyzes the code pattern image to obtain codeinformation corresponding to the code pattern image and extract the webpage corresponding to the code information.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providing acontent using a code pattern in a service provider server, the methodcomprising: generating code information corresponding to web pageaddress information including predetermined content information,generating a code pattern image corresponding to the code information,receiving a content information request message from a user terminal,wherein the user terminal comprises a decoder for decoding the codepattern image, and the user terminal takes photograph the code patternimage and decodes the photographed code pattern image to obtain the webpage address information including the content information to connectthe service provider server, and obtaining web page content includingthe content information corresponding to the code information andtransmitting the web page content to the user terminal.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providing acontent using a code pattern, the method comprising: taking a photographof a code pattern image by a camera installed in a mobile terminal,transmitting a content information request message including thephotographed code pattern image to a service provider server, by themobile terminal, and analyzing the code pattern image to obtain codeinformation, by the service provider server, analyzing the codeinformation to obtain at least one web page information correspondingthe code information, by the service provider server, and transmittingthe obtained web page information to the mobile terminal, by the serviceprovider server.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providing atransportation call service using a code pattern, the method comprising:receiving a transport call message including code information obtainedby analyzing a code pattern installed at one side of a specific region,from a user terminal, wherein the code pattern includes a serviceidentifier for indicating a service type and location information aboutthe specific region, obtaining the service identifier and the locationinformation about the specific region from the code information includedin the received taxi call message, and obtaining information about atleast one transportation service provider server corresponding to theservice identifier to transmit the taxi call message including thelocation information about the specific region to the transportationservice provider server, wherein the transportation service providerserver detects present location information of transport terminalbelonged to the transportation service provider and transmits the taxicall message to a transport terminal which is the nearest from thespecific region.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providing atransportation call service using a code pattern, the method comprising:receiving a transportation call message including code informationobtained by analyzing a code pattern installed at one side of a specificregion, from a user terminal, wherein the code pattern comprises serviceidentifier for indicating a service type and location information aboutthe specific region, obtaining the service identifier and the locationinformation about the specific region from the code information belongedto a taxi call message, obtaining present location information oftransport terminals located in a predetermined distance from thespecific region, and detecting the nearest transport terminal from thespecific region and transmitting the transport terminal call message tothe transport terminal.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providing atransportation call service using a code pattern, the method comprising:receiving a transportation call message including code informationobtained by analyzing a code pattern installed at one side of a specificregion, from a user terminal, wherein the code pattern comprises aservice identifier for indicating a service type and locationinformation about the specific region, analyzing the service identifierincluded in a transport call message and recognizing that the servicetype is a transportation call service, obtaining location informationfor the specific region location and information about transportationservice provider server corresponding to the code information includedin the received transport call message, and transmitting the locationinformation for the specific region and the information abouttransportation service provider server to the user terminal wherein ifthe user terminal transmits transport call message including thelocation information for the specific region to the transportationservice provider server, the transportation service provider serverdetects present location information of transport terminal belonged tothe transportation service provider and transmits the transport terminalcall message to the nearest transport terminal from the specific regionlocation.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of callingtransportation using a code pattern in a user terminal, the methodcomprising: reading a code pattern installed at one side of a specificregion to obtain code information, wherein the code pattern compriseslocation information for a specific region and information about atransportation service provider server, obtaining the locationinformation for the specific region and the information about thetransportation service provider server from the obtained codeinformation, and transmitting transport terminal call message includingthe location information for the specific region to the transportationservice provider server, wherein the transportation service providerserver detects present location information of transport terminalsbelonged to the transportation service provider and transmits thetransport terminal call message to the nearest transport terminal fromthe specific region location.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of callingtransportation using code pattern in user terminal, the methodcomprising: reading a code pattern installed at one side of a specificregion to obtain code information, wherein the code pattern compriseslocation information for a specific region and information about atransportation service provider server, transmitting the obtained codeinformation to a service provider server, receiving location informationfor the specific region and information about the transportation serviceprovider server corresponding to the code information, and transmittingtransport terminal call message including the location information forthe specific region to the transportation service provider server,wherein the transportation service provider server detects presentlocation information of transport terminals belonged to thetransportation service provider and transmits the terminal call messageto the nearest transport terminal from the specific region location.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providingpersonal contact information using a code pattern, the methodcomprising: receiving a code pattern issue request message includinguser contact information from a user terminal, generating codeinformation corresponding to the user contact information, generatingcode pattern image corresponding to the code information, transmittingthe generated code pattern image to the user terminal; receiving usercontact information request message including the code information froma predetermined terminal, wherein the predetermined terminal includes adecoder for decoding code pattern and generates the code information byphotographing the code pattern image and by decoding the photographedcode pattern image; and transmitting user contact informationcorresponding to the code pattern to the predetermined terminal.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providingpersonal contact information using code pattern, the method comprising:receiving a code pattern issue request message including user contactinformation from an agent's computer by a service provider server,generating code information corresponding to the user contactinformation by the service provider server, generating code patternimage corresponding to the code information by the service providerserver, transmitting the generated code pattern image to the agent'scomputer by the service provider server; transmitting the code patternimage to business card imprint machine by the agent's computer in orderthat a business card having the code pattern is issued; receiving usercontact information request message including the code information froma predetermined terminal, wherein the predetermined terminal includes adecoder for decoding code pattern and generates the code information byphotographing the code pattern image and by decoding the photographedcode pattern image, and transmitting user contact informationcorresponding to the code pattern to the predetermined terminal.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of providingpersonal contact information using a code pattern, the methodcomprising: receiving a code pattern issue request message includinguser contact information from a user terminal; generating codeinformation corresponding to the user contact information, generatingcode pattern image corresponding to the code information, transmittingthe generated code pattern image to the user terminal, receivingpersonal contact information request message including the code patternimage which is picture of code pattern written on business card from apredetermined terminal, and obtaining user contact informationcorresponding to the code pattern image to transmit to the predeterminedterminal.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of obtainingpersonal contact information using a code pattern in a predeterminedterminal, the method comprising: taking a photograph of a code patternin which user contact information is stored, obtaining code informationfrom the photographed code pattern image, transmitting user contactinformation request message including the obtained code information to aservice provider server, receiving user contact information from theservice provider server to display the user contact information onscreen, and connecting to the received user contact information ifcontact command is input by a predetermined terminal' user.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of paying abill using a code pattern in a user terminal, the method comprising:receiving a billing notice message from a service provider server,connecting to the service provider server based on the contactinformation which is included in the billing notice message,transmitting code pattern issue request message for getting codeinformation in which user information and billing information are storedto the service provider server, and receiving code pattern image fromthe service provider server, wherein the service provider servergenerates code information including the user information and billinginformation and code pattern image corresponding to the codeinformation.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of paying abill using a code pattern in a user terminal, the method comprising:taking a photograph of a code pattern image installed at one side of apaper bill by a photographer in the user terminal, analyzing the codepattern image to obtain code information corresponding to the codepattern image, wherein the code information includes billing informationand service provider information, analyzing the code information toobtain the billing information and the service provider information,transmitting payment request message including user information and thebilling information to the service provider server corresponding to theobtained service provider information, and receiving payment completionmessage from the service provider server-after the service providerserver transmits payment request message to billing server and receivespayment completion message from the billing server.

Still another aspect of the present invention provides a method ofpaying a bill using code pattern in a billing system, the methodcomprising: detecting a code pattern image which is displayed on aterminal screen, analyzing the code pattern image to obtain codeinformation corresponding to the code pattern image, obtaining userinformation and billing information which are included in the codeinformation to transmit the user information and the billing informationto a billing processing unit, obtaining payment method information totransmit the result to the billing processing unit, and processingpayment transaction corresponding to the payment method information.

Still another aspect of the present invention provides a method ofpaying a bill using code pattern in a service provider server, themethod comprising: receiving a code pattern issue request message from aterminal, obtaining billing information corresponding to the receiveduser information, generating code information corresponding to the userinformation and the billing information; generating code pattern imagecorresponding to the code information, and transmitting the code patternimage to the terminal, wherein the code pattern image displayed on theterminal screen is read and procedure for paying the bill is processedby billing system.

Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a method of payinga bill using code pattern in a service provider server, the methodcomprising: receiving a payment request message including userinformation and billing information from a user terminal, wherein theuser terminal includes a decoder for decoding the code pattern image,and the user terminal takes photograph the code pattern image anddecodes the photographed code pattern image to obtain code informationand then obtains information about a service provider' server to connectthe service provider server, checking whether the transmitted userinformation and billing information are identical to the userinformation and billing information which are stored in billingdatabase, and processing procedure for paying the bill, if thetransmitted user information and billing information are identical tothe user information and billing information which are stored in billingdatabase.

Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a method of payinga bill using a code pattern in a service provider server, the methodcomprising: receiving a payment request message including a code patternimage from a user terminal, wherein the code pattern image includesbilling information and is photographed by a photographing unit in theuser terminal, analyzing the code pattern image to obtain codeinformation corresponding to the code pattern image obtaining userinformation and billing information corresponding to the codeinformation in reference of billing database, and processing procedurefor paying the bill

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference tothe attached drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the construction of a content providing systemusing a barcode 60 according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of the userterminal used in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of the usercontent request message.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a content providing method using a barcodeaccording to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a content providing method using a barcodeaccording to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a content providing method using a barcodeaccording to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a view showing the construction of a geographical informationproviding system using a code pattern according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of thespecific regional information request message.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a geographical information providing methodusing a code pattern according to a fourth embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a geographical information providing methodusing a code pattern according to a fifth embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 13 is a first configuration view showing a system for providing ataxi call service using a code pattern according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 14 is a second configuration view of a system for providing a taxicall service using a barcode according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 15 is a view conceptually showing the information which is storedin the barcode used in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method of providing taxi call service usinga barcode according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a detail flowchart of the step S1655, in case that there area plurality of transportation service providers.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a method of providing taxi call service usinga barcode according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of a method of providing taxi call service usinga barcode according to an eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a construction view of the system for providing personalcontact information using a barcode 60 according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server of FIG. 20.

FIG. 22 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of theuser contact information request message.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of a barcode issue procedure by accessing theservice provider server through the user terminal.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart of a business card, in which the barcode isrecorded, issue procedure by accessing the service provider through theagent computer.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart of a method of providing personal contactinformation using a barcode according to a ninth embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart of a method of providing personal contactinformation using a barcode according to a tenth embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart that updating procedure of the user contactinformation and providing procedure of the updated user contactinformation are shown.

FIG. 28 is the first construction view of a billing system using a codepattern according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is the second construction view of a billing system using a codepattern according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server of FIG. 28.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of thepayment processing apparatus 2870.

FIG. 32 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of thepayment request message 3200.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart of a code pattern, in which billing informationis recorded, issue procedure.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart of a method of providing payment service usingcode pattern according to an eleventh embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 35 is a flowchart of a method of paying a bill using code patternaccording to a twelfth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 36 is a flowchart of a method of paying a bill using code patternaccording to a thirteenth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN INVENTIVE EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described indetail with reference to the attached drawings. The same referencenumerals are used throughout the different drawings to designate thesame or similar components.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the construction of a content providing systemusing a barcode 60 according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the content providing system using the barcode 60according to the present invention comprises a user terminal 10, aservice provider server 130 and a plurality of Web servers 150.

The user terminal 10, which is a mobile communication terminal connectedto the service provider server 130 through a communication network 20including a wireless communication network and a wired communicationnetwork, transmits and receives information to and from the serviceprovider 130 through the communication network 20. A wirelesscommunication terminal, such as a mobile phone, a PersonalCommunications Service (PCS) and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), canbe used as the user terminal 10. The terminal 10 used in the presentinvention has a function of reading and decoding the barcode 60, so thatthe terminal 10 reads the barcode 60 printed on a printed matter, suchas a newspaper or a magazine, extracts Uniform Resource Locator (URL)information recorded on the barcode 60 and accesses the service providerserver 130, or extracts code information and transmits the extractedcode information to the service provider 130 through the communicationnetwork 20. In this case, the URL information may be the numeric URL ofa corresponding domain. The detailed construction of the user terminal10 will be descried later with reference to FIG. 3. Further, a PersonalComputer (PC) or a notebook computer, as well as a mobile terminal, canbe used as the user terminal 10.

The service provider server 130 is a computer provided in a serviceprovider that provides the content providing service of the presentinvention, and functions to extract corresponding content and transmitthe content to the user terminal 10, or extract the information of a Webpage, providing the corresponding content, and transmit the Web pageinformation to the user terminal 10, if a content request message isreceived from the user terminal 10 through the communication network 20.In this case, the service provider server 130 may be the computer of aservice provider independent of a communication service provider (notshown) that provides the communication network 20, or the computer of acommunication service provider if the communication service providerpersonally provides the service using the communication network 20 andthe computer thereof.

The Web server 150 is a computer provided in a service provider that hascontent related to information recorded on the barcode, and functions toextract Web page information corresponding to a Web page informationrequest message received from the user terminal 10 and provide the Webpage information to the user terminal 10. That is, the Web server 150 isused when the service provider server 130 has information on Webservers, including corresponding content, without personally providingthe content providing service.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server 130 of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the serviceprovider server 130 includes a code distribution unit 132, a barcodeimage analyzing unit 133, a code information analyzing unit 135, atransmitting/receiving unit 136, a code information database managingunit 137 and a control unit 134.

The code distribution unit 132, which is adapted to analyze a serviceidentifier 91 included in a content request message 90 received from theuser terminal 10 and classify service types, analyzes the serviceidentifier 91, recognizes that a service type is the content providingservice, and transmits a received barcode image or code information tothe barcode image transmitting unit 133 or the code informationanalyzing unit 135 according to embodiments.

The barcode image analyzing unit 133 is adapted to receive a barcodeimage photographed by a photographing unit (11 of FIG. 3), extract codeinformation from the barcode image and transmit the code information tothe code information analyzing unit 135 in a case where a decoder 13 fordecoding the barcode 60 is not provided in the user terminal 10.

The code information analyzing unit 135 functions to analyze codeinformation 95 received from the code distribution unit 132 or thebarcode image analyzing unit 133 and extract the information of a Webpage, including content information, from the analyzed code information.The code information analyzing unit 135 extracts the Web pageinformation corresponding to the code information 95 with reference tothe code information database 140 storing therein user contactinformation corresponding to the code information 95.

The transmitting/receiving unit 136 functions to receive the contentinformation request message 90 from the user terminal 10, and transmitextracted content information or Web page information to the userterminal 10.

The code information database managing unit 137 functions to manage thecode information database 137 storing therein the Web page informationof a Web server 150 corresponding to the code information 95.

The control unit 134, which is adapted to control the respectivecomponents, generates control signals required to control the barcodeimage analyzing unit 133 and the code information analyzing unit 135,extracts content corresponding to the received content request message90, and transmits the content to the transmitting/receiving unit 136.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of the userterminal 10 used in one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the user terminal 10 used in the present inventionincludes a photographing unit 11, a decoder 13, a control unit 15, auser interface unit 17 and a transmitting/receiving unit 19. In FIG. 3,for convenience of description, components equal to those of a typicalmobile terminal are omitted, but only components related to the presentinvention are depicted.

The photographing unit 11, which is a means for recognizing orphotographing an image, functions to recognize (or photograph) thebarcode 60, convert recognized (photographed) analog image data intodigital image data, and transmit the digital image data to the decoder13 in the present invention. The photographing unit 11 can be internallyor externally provided in or on the user terminal 10. A scanner, a PCcamera, a digital camera, a Web camera or the like can be used as thephotographing unit 11.

The decoder 13 functions to analyze digital image data received from thephotographing unit 11 and extract code information from the analyzeddigital image data. The decoder 13 can be implemented with aone-dimensional or two-dimensional code recognizer depending on the typeof the barcode 60. The code information extracted by the decoder 13 maybe a preset code value. However, in other embodiments of the presentinvention, such as a third embodiment which will be described later, theuser terminal 10 may not include the decoder 13. In this way, the usercan be provided with the content providing service of the presentinvention using a conventional user terminal 10 equipped with a camera.In this case, the service provider server 130 should include a componentfor decoding.

The user interface unit 17 is a part to provide an interface between theuser and the user terminal 10. In detail, the user interface unit 17functions to provide a user interface so that the user can access theservice provider server 130 to be provided with Internet content.Further, the user interface unit 17 functions to provide the userinterface so that the user can access a corresponding Web server whenWeb page information is received from the service provider server 130. AWeb browser is generally used as the user interface unit 17. Currently,a second-generation mobile communication terminal and a third-generationmobile communication terminal, such as a mobile terminal forInternational Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)-2000, have therein awireless Web browser to support the downloading of multimedia data, suchas moving images. Such a wireless Web browser generally supports awireless Internet function using a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP),which is a protocol designed to simplify the amount of data to beprocessed so as to implement an Internet browser function in a mobileterminal having limitations in display and memory capacity.

The transmitting/receiving unit 19 functions to transmit the usercontent request message 90, including the code information 95 receivedfrom the decoder 13, to the service provider server 130. Further, thetransmitting/receiving unit 19 transmits a barcode issue requestmessage, including user contact information, to the service providerserver 130 at a barcode issuing step.

The control unit 15, which is used to control the respective components,generates a photographing control signal and transmits the photographingcontrol signal to the photographing unit 11 when a photographing buttonis pressed by the user, generates a decoding control signal, transmitsthe decoding control signal to the decoder 13, and transmits atransmission/reception control signal to the transmitting/receiving unit19 so that the user content request message 90 is transmitted to theservice provider server 130.

In FIG. 3, an example of the barcode 60 is depicted. The barcode 60includes a one-dimensional barcode, and a PDF-417 code, a QR code and adata matrix, which are two-dimensional barcodes, depending on the typeof the barcode 60.

The barcode 60, which is widely used at the present time, is aone-dimensional barcode capable of representing only simple and limitedinformation, such as alphabet letters and numeric characters. Incontrast, the two-dimensional barcode is implemented in a plane form byarranging data horizontally and vertically, and is capable ofrepresenting even the Korean alphabet and image. In the presentinvention, the two-dimensional barcode is used to record a large amountof information in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of the usercontent request message 90.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the user content request message 90, a serviceidentifier 91, terminal information 93 and code information 95 arerecorded.

The service identifier 91 is a part on which the type of a service theservice provider server 130 should provide is to be recorded. Theservice provider server 130 can provide a plurality of services, whichcan utilize the barcode 60, for example, a content providing service, ataxi call service, an advertising service and a commodity purchaseconnecting service. For example, four bits are allocated to the serviceidentifier 91, so that 0001, 0010, 0011 and 0100 can be used asidentifiers to represent the taxi call service, the advertising service,the purchase connecting service, and the content providing service,respectively. In this case, the number of bits allocated to the serviceidentifier 91 can be properly changed depending on the type of theservice which the service provider server 130 provides, or if necessary.

The terminal information 93 is the phone number of the user terminal 10.

The code information 95 is generated by decoding the barcode 60 in thedecoder 13 in the user terminal 10, and includes the information of aWeb page having content related to the barcode. However, this dataconfiguration is only an embodiment. In a first embodiment which will bedescribed later (when the service provider server 130 personallyprovides content), code information is not necessary, and in a thirdembodiment (when the user terminal 10 is not provided with the decoder13), a barcode image, not code information, may be included in thecontent request message 90.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a content providing method using a barcodeaccording to a first embodiment of the present invention. The firstembodiment shows a case where the user terminal 10 is provided with thedecoder 13.

First, the user terminal 10 photographs a barcode 60 printed on aprinted matter at step S500. For example, the user selects a barcodemenu on the user terminal 10, presses a photographing button, and thenphotographs the barcode 60 printed on the printed matter using thephotographing unit 11, such as a camera provided in the terminal.

The decoder 13 provided in the user terminal 10 decodes the photographedbarcode 60 to extract the URL information of the service provider server130 recorded on the barcode 60 at steps S510 and S520.

The user terminal 10 accesses the service provider server 130 using theextracted URL information, and transmits a content request message 90 tothe service provider server 130 at step 530.

The service provider server 130 analyzes a service identifier 91included in the received content request message at step S540. That is,the code distribution unit 132 in the service provider server 130recognizes that a service type is a content providing service byanalyzing the service identifier 91.

The control unit 134 extracts corresponding content on the basis of acontent providing service recognition signal received from the codedistribution unit 132 at step S550. In this case, the content mayinclude any one of an image, a sound source, a moving image and text, ormay be commodity information or commodity advertisement information, aswill be described later.

If the service provider server 130 transmits the extracted contentinformation to the user terminal 10 at step S560, the received contentinformation is displayed on the screen of the user terminal 10 at stepS570. In this case, the received content information may be storeddepending on a user's selection. Further, if the content are soundsources or moving images, the sound sources are output through a soundoutput unit (not shown) of the user terminal 10.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a content providing method using a barcodeaccording to a second embodiment of the present invention.

First, the user terminal 10 photographs a barcode 60 printed on aprinted matter at step S600. For example, the user selects a barcodemenu on the user terminal 10, presses a photographing button, and thenphotographs the barcode 60 printed on the printed matter using thephotographing unit 11, such as a camera provided in the terminal.

The decoder 13 provided in the user terminal 10 decodes the photographedbarcode image to extract code information 95 from the barcode image atstep S610 and S620, and then transmits a content request message 90,including the code information 95, to the service provider server 130 atstep S630.

The service provider server 130 analyzes a service identifier 91included in the received content request message at step S640. That is,the code distribution unit 132 in the service provider server 130analyzes the service identifier 91, recognizes that a service type isthe content providing service, and transmits the code information 95 tothe code information analyzing unit 135.

The code information 135 analyzes the received code information toextract Web page information at step S650. That is, the code informationanalyzing unit 135 extracts the Web page information corresponding tothe received code information 95 from the code information database 140with reference to the code information database 140. In this case, aswill be described later, the Web page information may be the informationof Web pages, such as an event entering site and a commodity informationproviding site.

If the service provider sever 130 transmits the extracted Web pageinformation to the user terminal 10 at step S660, the user terminal 10displays the received Web page information on the screen, and receives aWeb page selection command from the user at step S670.

If the user terminal 10 transmits a Web page information request messageto a Web server 150 corresponding to the received Web page selectioncommand at step S680, the Web server 150 extracts a corresponding Webpage and transmits the Web page to the user terminal 10 at steps S690and S700.

Finally, the user terminal 10 displays the received Web page on thescreen at step S710.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a content providing method using a barcodeaccording to a third embodiment of the present invention. The thirdembodiment shows a case where the user terminal 10 is not provided withthe decoder 13.

First, the user terminal 10 photographs a barcode 60 printed on aprinted matter at step S800. For example, the user selects a barcodemenu on the user terminal 10, presses a photographing button, and thenphotographs the barcode 60 printed on the printed matter using thephotographing unit 11, such as a camera provided in the terminal.

The user terminal 10 transmits a content request message 90 includingthe photographed barcode image to the service provider server 130 atstep S810.

The service provider 130 analyzes a service identifier 90 included inthe received content request message at step S820. That is, the codedistribution unit 132 in the service provider server 130 analyzes theservice identifier 91, recognizes that a service type is the contentproviding service, and transmits the received barcode image to thebarcode image analyzing unit 133.

The barcode image analyzing unit 133 extracts code informationcorresponding to the barcode image, and transmits the code informationto the code information analyzing unit 135 at step S830.

The code information analyzing unit 135 analyzes the received codeinformation to extract Web page information at step S840. That is, thecode information analyzing unit 135 extracts the Web page informationcorresponding to the received code information 95 from the codeinformation database 140 with reference to the code information database140. In this case, as will be described later, the Web page informationmay be the information of Web pages, such as an event entering site anda commodity information providing site.

If the service provider server 130 transmits the extracted Web pageinformation to the user terminal 10 at step S850, the user terminal 10displays the received Web page information on the screen, and receives aWeb page selection command from the user at step S860.

If the user terminal 10 transmits a Web page information request messageto a Web server 150 corresponding to the received Web page selectioncommand at step S870, the Web server 150 extracts a corresponding Webpage and transmits the Web page to the user terminal 10 at steps S880and S890.

Finally, the user terminal 10 displays the received Web page on thescreen at step S895.

Hereinafter, for ease of understanding of the present invention,respective embodiments are described using detailed examples.

First Example News-Related Information Provision

For example, it is assumed that a user desires to view the trailer of aspecific movie while reading news related to the specific movie in anewspaper or a magazine. If the user applies the photographing unit 11of the user terminal 10 to the barcode 60 printed on a portion of themovie news and then selects a barcode reading menu, the user terminal 10accesses the Web site of the service provider server 130 recorded on thebarcode 60. If the Web site extracts moving image data for the trailerof a corresponding movie and transmits the moving image data to the userterminal 10, the user can view the trailer of the movie through the userterminal 10.

Alternatively, the service provider 130 can search for Web pagescorresponding to Web sites that provide moving images for the trailer ofthe movie, and provide the information of the Web pages to the userterminal 10, and the user can access the received Web page and view thetrailer of the movie.

Second Example Commodity Purchase Site Access

For example, it is assumed that a user desires to purchase acorresponding commodity while reading a commodity advertisement insertedin a newspaper or a magazine. If the user applies the photographing unit11 of the user terminal 10 to the barcode 60 printed on a portion of thecommodity advertisement and then selects a barcode reading menu, theuser terminal 10 accesses the Web site of the service provider server130 recorded on the barcode. If the Web site extracts the commodityinformation or purchase information of the corresponding commodity andtransmits the extracted information to the user terminal 10, the usercan confirm the information through the user terminal 10 and thendetermine whether to purchase the commodity.

Alternatively, the service provider server 130 can search for Web pagescorresponding to Web sites that provide the commodity information orpurchase information of the commodity, and provide the searchedinformation to the user terminal 10, and the user can access thereceived Web page and then purchase the commodity.

Third Example Event Entering Site access

For example, it is assumed that a user desires to enter an event whilereading an event entering advertisement inserted in a newspaper or amagazine. If the user applies the photographing unit 11 of the userterminal 10 to a barcode 60 printed on a portion of the event enteringadvertisement and then selects a barcode reading menu, the user terminal10 accesses the Web site of the service provider server 130 recorded onthe barcode. If the Web site extracts corresponding event enteringinformation and transmits the event entering information to the userterminal 10, the user can confirm the information through the userterminal 10 and then enter the event.

FIG. 8 is a view showing the construction of a geographical informationproviding system using a code pattern according to the presentinvention.

As shown in FIG. 8, the geographical information providing system usinga code pattern according to the present invention comprises a userterminal 10 and a service provider server 830.

The user terminal 10, which is a mobile communication terminal connectedto the service provider server 830 through a communication network 20including a wireless communication network and a wired communicationnetwork, transmits and receives information to and from the serviceprovider 830 through the communication network 20. A wirelesscommunication terminal, such as a mobile phone, PCS and PDA, can be usedas the user terminal 10. The terminal 10 used in the present inventionhas a function of reading and decoding the barcode 60. The user terminal10 reads the barcode 60 printed on a tourist guidebook, a regionalguideboard, etc., extracts the detailed URL information of a Web pagerecorded on the barcode 60, accesses the service provider server 830corresponding to the URL information, and requests geographicalinformation, such as sightseeing information or regional information,from the service provider server 830. The detailed construction of theuser terminal 10 will be described later with reference to FIG. 10.Further, a PC or notebook computer, as well as a mobile terminal, can beused as the user terminal 10.

The service provider server 830 is a computer provided in a serviceprovider that provides the geographical information providing serviceusing a code pattern of the present invention, and functions to receivea geographical information request message (1000 of FIG. 10) from theuser terminal 10 through the communication network 20, extract thecontent of a Web page including the geographical information, andtransmit the extracted Web page information to the user terminal 10. Inthis case, the service provider server 830 may be the computer of aservice provider independent of a communication service provider (notshown) that provides the communication network 20, or the computer of acommunication service provider if the communication service providerpersonally provides the service using the communication network 20 andthe computer thereof.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server 830 of FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 9, the serviceprovider server 830 includes a barcode generating unit 831, a codedistribution unit 832, a barcode image analyzing unit 833, a codeinformation analyzing unit 835, a transmitting/receiving unit 836, ageographical information database managing unit 837, and a control unit834. In order to describe the respective components of the serviceprovider server 830 of FIG. 9, FIGS. 3, 8 and 10 are referred totogether with FIG. 9.

The barcode generating unit 831 is adapted to generate a barcode 60corresponding to the address information of a Web page that providesgeographical information. The barcode generating unit 831 codes theaddress information of a Web page that provides specific regionalinformation in a preset format to generate code information, and thengenerates a barcode image 1005 corresponding to the code information. Inthis case, the Web page address information denotes the detailed URLinformation of the Web page, and the URL may be a numeric URL. That is,the barcode generating unit 831 converts the detailed URL information ofthe Web page into binary codes to generate a two-dimensional barcodeimage 1005.

The code distribution unit 832, which is adapted to analyze a serviceidentifier 1001 included in a specific regional information requestmessage 1000 received from the user terminal 10 and then classifyservice types, analyzes the service identifier 1001, recognizes that aservice type is a geographical information providing service, andtransmits the barcode image 1005 to the barcode image analyzing unit 833if the barcode image 1005 is included in the specific regionalinformation request message received from the user terminal 10.

The barcode image analyzing unit 833 is adapted to receive the barcodeimage 1005 photographed by the photographing unit 11, extract codeinformation from the barcode image 1005 and transmit the codeinformation to the code information analyzing unit 835, in a case wherea decoder 13 for decoding the barcode 60 is not provided in the userterminal 10.

The code information analyzing unit 835 functions to analyze the codeinformation received from the barcode image analyzing unit 833 andextract detailed URL, which is Web page address information, from theanalyzed code information. The code information analyzing unit 835extracts the URL information of the Web page corresponding to the codeinformation with reference to a geographical information database 840storing therein the information of detailed URL that provides specificregional information corresponding to the received code information.

The transmitting/receiving unit 836 functions to transmit and receivedata related to the geographical information providing service to andfrom the user terminal 10. That is, the transmitting/receiving unit 836receives the specific regional information request message from the userterminal 10, and transmits Web page content including the extractedspecific regional information to the user terminal 10.

The geographical information database managing unit 837 functions tomanage the geographical information database 840 that stores therein Webpage address information corresponding to code information.

The control unit 834 is adapted to control the respective components,and functions to generate a barcode generation control signal requiredto generate a barcode related to specific regional information,transmits the barcode generation control signal to the barcodegenerating unit 831, generates a control signal required to extract Webpage content corresponding to the received specific regional informationrequest message 1000, and transmits the control signal to the codeinformation analyzing unit 835. Further, the control unit 834 generatesa barcode image analysis control signal and transmits the barcode imageanalysis control signal to the barcode image analyzing unit 833 when thebarcode image 1005 is transmitted from the user terminal 10.

In this embodiment, the barcode image analyzing unit 833 and the codeinformation analyzing unit 835 are separately constructed. However, itis properly possible to integrate these functions and allow the barcodeimage analyzing unit 833 to have a function of analyzing codeinformation.

FIG. 10 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of thespecific regional information request message 1000.

As shown in FIG. 10, in the specific regional information requestmessage 1000, a service identifier 1001, terminal information 1003 andcode information 1005 are recorded.

The service identifier 1001 is a part on which the type of a service theservice provider server 830 should provide is to be recorded. Theservice provider server 830 can provide a plurality of services, whichcan utilize the barcode 60, for example, a user contact informationproviding service, a taxi call service, an advertising service, acommodity information providing service, a geographical informationproviding service, a tax payment service, etc. For example, four bitsare allocated to the service identifier 1001, so that 0001, 0010, 0011,0100, 0101 and 0110 can be used as identifiers to represent the taxicall service, the advertising service, the commodity informationproviding service, the user contact information providing service, thegeographical information providing service, and the tax payment service,respectively. Therefore, in this embodiment the service identifier 1001would be 0101. In this case, the number of bits allocated to the serviceidentifier 1001 can be properly changed depending on the type of theservice which the service provider server 830 provides, or if necessary.

The terminal information 1003 is the phone number of the user terminal10.

The barcode image 1005 is formed by photographing the barcode 60 throughthe photographing unit 11 and converting the photographed barcode intodigital image data. As described above, the barcode image 1005 isrequired when the user terminal 10 is not provided with the decoder 13,while it is not required when the user terminal is provided with thedecoder 13.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a geographical information providing methodusing a code pattern according to a fourth embodiment of the presentinvention. The fourth embodiment shows a case where the user terminal 10is provided with the decoder 13.

First, the user terminal 10 photographs a barcode 60 printed on aportion of a tourist guidebook or a regional guideboard at step S1100.For example, the user selects a barcode menu on the user terminal 10,presses a photographing button, and then photographs the barcode 60printed on the guidebook or the guideboard using the photographing unit11, such as a camera provided in the terminal.

The decoder 13, provided in the user terminal 10, decodes a photographedbarcode image to extract detailed URL information of a Web page thatprovides specific regional information at steps S1110 and 1120.

The user terminal 10 accesses the Web page using the extracted detailedURL, and transmits a specific regional information request message 1000to the service provider server 830 at step S1130.

The service provider server 830 analyzes a service identifier 1001,included in the received specific regional information request message1000, and then recognizes a service type at step S1140. That is, thecode distribution unit 832 in the service provider server 830 analyzesthe service identifier 1001, recognizes that a service type is thegeographical information providing service, and notifies the controlunit 834 that the service type is the geographical information providingservice.

If the service provider server 830 transmits a language selectionrequest message to the user terminal 10 at step S1150, the user terminal10 receives language selection information from the user and transmitsthe selected language information to the service provider server 830 atstep S1160. For example, if a foreigner lends and uses a roaming phonefor domestic communication during domestic travel, the foreigner selectshis or her language on a menu displayed on the screen of the terminal,thus viewing specific regional information configured using his or herlanguage.

If a language is selected, the service provider server 830 transmits adetailed item selection request message, including a detailed item listrequired to select the detailed items of the specific regionalinformation, to the user terminal 10 at step S1170. In this case, thedetailed items may include characters, moving images, or guide messagesrelated to relics, in the case of the tourist guidebook, or may includethe information of sightseeing places, shopping centers, population,surrounding rough maps, public offices or traffic around a specificregion in the case of the regional guideboard.

The user terminal 10 displays the detailed item list on the screen,receives a selection command for any one of displayed detailed itemsfrom the user, and transmits the selected detailed item information tothe service provider server 830 at step S1175. For example, if the userdesires to know the information of a bus toward a city hall, the usercan select a traffic information item on the menu displayed on thescreen.

The control unit 834 of the service provider server 830 extracts a Webpage corresponding to the detailed item configured using the selectedlanguage, on the basis of the notification signal received from the codedistribution unit 832 and the selected language information and detaileditem information received from the user terminal 10 at step S1180.

The service provider server 830 transmits the extracted Web page contentto the user terminal 10 at step S1185. The transmitted Web page contentare displayed on the screen of the user terminal 10 at step S1190.According to the above example, the information of a bus, a subway, etc.around the specific region is displayed on the screen of the userterminal 10.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a geographical information providing methodusing a code pattern according to a fifth embodiment of the presentinvention. The fifth embodiment shows a case where the user terminal 10is not provided with the decoder 13.

First, the user terminal 10 photographs a barcode 60 printed on aportion of a tourist guidebook or a regional guideboard at step S1200.For example, the user selects a barcode menu on the user terminal 10,presses a photographing button, and then photographs the barcode 60printed on the guidebook or the guideboard using the photographing unit11, such as a camera provided in the terminal.

The user terminal 10 transmits a photographed barcode image 95 to theservice provider server 830 at step S1210.

The service provider server 830 analyzes a service identifier 1001,included in a received specific regional information request message,and then recognizes a service type at step S1220. That is, the codedistribution unit 832 in the service provider server 830 analyzes theservice identifier 1001 and then recognizes that a service type is thegeographical information providing service.

The barcode image analyzing unit 833 in the service provider server 830analyzes the received barcode image to extract code information from thebarcode image, and then transmits the extracted code information to thecode information analyzing unit 835 at step S1230.

If the service provider server 830 transmits a language selectionrequest message to the user terminal 10 at step S1240, the user terminal10 receives language selection information from the user and transmitsthe selected language information to the service provider server 830 atstep S1250. For example, if a foreigner lends and uses a roaming phonefor domestic communication during domestic travel, the foreigner selectshis or her language on a menu displayed on the screen of the terminal,thus viewing specific regional information configured using his or herlanguage.

If a language is selected, the service provider server 830 transmits adetailed item selection request message, including a detailed item listrequired to select the detailed items of the specific regionalinformation, to the user terminal 10 at step S1260. In this case, thedetailed items may include characters, moving images, or guide messagesrelated to relics, in the case of the tourist guidebook, or may includethe information of sightseeing places, shopping centers, population,surrounding rough maps, public offices or traffic around a specificregion in the case of the regional guideboard.

The user terminal 10 displays the detailed item list on the screen,receives a selection command for any one of displayed detailed itemsfrom the user, and transmits the selected detailed item information tothe service provider server 830 at step S1270. For example, if the userdesires to know the information of a bus toward a city hall, the usercan select a traffic information item on the menu displayed on thescreen.

The code information analyzing unit 835 analyzes received codeinformation, and then extracts a Web page corresponding to the detaileditem configured using the selected language, on the basis of theselected language information and detailed item information receivedfrom the user terminal 10 at step S1280. That is, the code informationanalyzing unit 835 extracts Web page content corresponding to theselected language, detailed item and code information 1005 from thegeographical information database 840 with reference to the geographicalinformation database 840.

The service provider server 830 transmits the extracted Web page contentto the user terminal 10 at step S1285. The transmitted Web page contentare displayed on the screen of the user terminal 10 at step S1290.According to the above example, the information of a bus, a subway, etc.around the specific region is displayed on the screen of the userterminal 10.

Hereinafter, detailed examples to which the above embodiments are to beapplied are described. The above embodiments will be more clearlyunderstood by the following examples.

Fourth Example Sightseeing Information Service

For example, it is assumed that a foreigner from France comes to thiscountry for domestic travel and lends a roaming phone for domesticcommunication and a tourist guidebook, in which the barcode 60 of thepresent invention is printed with respect to each sightseeing place, atan airport or other places.

When finding out a desired sightseeing place while reading the touristguidebook, the foreigner photographs the barcode 60 printed in relationto the corresponding sightseeing place using the lent roaming phone.Then, the roaming phone accesses a Web site providing sightseeing placeguide information, and displays a language selection menu on the screenof the roaming phone. The foreigner selects French, which is thelanguage of his or her own country, on the language selection menu.Then, on the screen of the roaming phone, detailed menu items, such aspicture view, moving image view, guide message listen, traffic guide andrelated information, are displayed. If the foreigner selects the movingimage view item, the Web site transmits the moving image data related tothe corresponding sightseeing place to the roaming phone, and the movingimage is played through the roaming phone.

Fifth Example Geographical Information Service

For example, it is assumed that Mr. K is located now in Seoul stationand should go to Seoul city hall on business.

Mr. K photographs a barcode 60 printed on a portion of a guideboardinstalled in front of the Seoul station using his terminal. Then, theterminal accesses a Web site providing geographical information anddisplays a language selection menu on the screen of the terminal. Mr. Kselects Korean on the language selection menu. Then, detailed menuitems, such as rough map view, surrounding sightseeing placeinformation, surrounding public office information, and call connection,are displayed on the screen of the terminal. If Mr. K selects thesurrounding public office information item, the Web site transmits theinformation of public offices placed around the Seoul station to theterminal, and the public office information is displayed on theterminal. If K selects a city hall among the public offices displayed onthe screen of the terminal, information, rough map and the like relatedto the city hall are displayed on the screen, so that Mr. K can easilyfind out the city hall by viewing the above information.

FIG. 13 is a first configuration view showing a system for providing ataxi call service using a code pattern according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

As shown in FIG. 13, the taxi call service providing system using a codepattern of the present invention comprises a user terminal 10, a serviceprovider server 1330, a transport service provider server 1340, and ataxi terminal 1350.

The user terminal 10, which is a mobile communication terminal connectedto the service provider server 1330 through a communication network 20including a wireless communication network and a wired communicationnetwork, transmits and receives information to and from the serviceprovider 1330 through the communication network 20. A wirelesscommunication terminal, such as a mobile phone, PCS and PDA, can be usedas the user terminal 10. The terminal 10 used in the present inventionhas a function of reading and decoding the barcode 60, so that theterminal 10 reads the barcode 60 printed on a portion of a station,extracts code information recorded on the barcode 60, and then transmitsthe code information to the service provider server 1330 through thecommunication network 20.

The detailed construction of the user terminal 10 is identical with thatof FIG. 3. However, the code information extracted by a decoder 13 maybe a preset code value or URL information of the transport serviceprovider server 1340. A transmitting/receiving unit 19 functions totransmit a taxi call message, including the code information receivedfrom the decoder 13, to the service provider server. However, if thecode information analyzed by the decoder 13 is URL of the transportservice provider server 1340, the transmitting/receiving unit 19 maydirectly transmit the taxi call message to the transport serviceprovider server 1340 without passing through the service provider server1330.

The service provider server 1330 is a computer provided in a serviceprovider that provides the taxi call service of the present invention,and functions to receive the taxi call message, including the codeinformation obtained by decoding the barcode 60, from the user terminal10 through the communication network 20, and then transmit the taxi callmessage to the transport service provider server 1340. In this case, theservice provider server 1330 may be the computer of a service providerindependent of a communication service provider (not shown) thatprovides the communication network 20, or the computer of acommunication service provider, such as KTF corporation of Korea, if thecommunication service provider personally provides the service using thecommunication network 20 and the computer thereof. The service providerserver 1330 may include an index database (not shown) for storingtherein a barcode mapping table so as to extract transport serviceprovider information and station location information based on the codeinformation received from the user terminal 10 in a seventh embodiment,which will be described later.

The transport service provider server 1340 is connected to the serviceprovider server 1330 through a network in a Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)manner. For such a network, there are the Internet, Local Area Network(LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), etc., however, the Internet ismost generally used. The transport service provider server 1340 detectsthe nearest taxi from a station where the user is currently located onthe basis of the taxi call message received from the service providerserver, and transmits a taxi call message, including the stationlocation information, to the taxi terminal 1350 provided in the taxi.

In this case, for a method of detecting the location of the taxi, therecan be used a method using cell ID which allows the user terminal 10 toinform a base station (not shown) of the current location of the userterminal 10 in advance and then enables a switching center (not shown)to detect the location of the mobile terminal, a method using a GlobalPositioning System (GPS) which tracks the location of the user terminal10 using a GPS satellite, and a method using Advanced Global PositioningSystem (AGPS) which tracks the location of the mobile terminal incombination with the positioning information obtained by the basestation through the combination of the cell ID method with the GPStechnology when the mobile terminal enters the central area of a townhaving a difficulty in measuring through a satellite.

The taxi terminal 1350, which is a mobile terminal provided in a taxi,can employ a mobile phone, PCS, PDA or the like, similar to the mobileterminal 10. If the taxi terminal 1350 receives the taxi call messagefrom the transport service provider server 1340, the taxi terminal 1350transmits a taxi call approval message, including expected arrival timeinformation, to the user terminal 10.

FIG. 14 is a second configuration view of a system for providing a taxicall service using a barcode 60 according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

The second configuration of the system of the present invention isdifferent from the first configuration of FIG. 13 in that the secondconfiguration does not include the transport service provider server1340.

In the second configuration of the system, because the functions of theuser terminal 10 and the taxi terminal 1350 are equal to those of thefirst configuration of the system, detailed descriptions thereof areomitted.

The service provide sever 1330 tracks the location of the taxi terminal1350, detects a nearest taxi from a station where the user terminal 10is located, and transmits a taxi call message to the taxi terminal 1350,besides the above-described functions. In this case, the serviceprovider server should have a location tracking device, or be providedwith the location information of the taxi terminal 1350 from an externallocation tracking device. That is, the service provider server 1330should be provided with the location information of the taxi terminal1350 based on the cell ID method from a communication service provider,or provided with the location information of the taxi terminal 1350 froma GPS satellite. If the Web server operated by the communication serviceprovider is a service provider server that provides the taxi callservice of the present invention, it is possible that the communicationservice provider tracks the current location of the taxi terminal 1350depending on the cell ID method through the use of the communicationnetwork 20 of the communication service provider.

FIG. 15 is a view conceptually showing the information which is storedin the barcode 60 used in one embodiment of the present invention.

The barcode 60 includes a one-dimensional code and a PDF-417 code, a QRcode and a data matrix, which are two-dimensional barcodes, depending onthe types of the barcode 60.

The barcode 60, which is generally and recently used, is aone-dimensional barcode and is capable of representing only simple andlimited information, such as alphabet characters, numerals. In contrast,the two dimensional barcode is formed to be expanded by arranging datahorizontally and vertically, and is capable of presenting even Koreanalphabet and image. In the present invention, a two-dimensional barcodeis used to record a large amount of information in the presentinvention.

As shown in FIG. 15, in the barcode 60 used in the present invention, aservice identifier 61, station location information 63 and information65 about transportation service provider server are recorded.

The service identifier 61 is a part in which a service type the serviceprovider server 1330 should provide is recorded. The service providerserver 1330 can provide a plurality of services, which can be providedusing the barcode 60, such as a taxi call service, an advertisingservice, a commodity purchase connecting service and telephoneconnecting service. So, for example, four bits are allocated to theservice identifier 61, so that 0001, 0010, 0011 and 0100 can be used asidentifiers to represent the taxi call service, the advertising service,the purchase connection service, and the telephone connecting service,respectively. In this case, the number of bits allocated to the serviceidentifier 61 can be properly changed depending on the types of serviceswhich the service provider server 1330 provides or if necessary.

The station location information 63 is part which indicates the presentlocation of the user terminal 10. Barcode maker records the number whichis allocated to the station, in which the user terminal 10 is currentlylocated, into the barcode 60.

The information 65 about transportation service provider server is apart which indicates the information about web server which the company,which runs taxi service, operates. As described above, the information65 about transportation service provider server may be a numeric URL,text URL or IP address of the transportation service provider server.

In this case, the user terminal 10 can access the transportation serviceprovider serve 1340 using the URL or IP address. Furthermore, in casethat the service provider server provides taxi call service to aplurality of transportation service providers, the service providerserver includes transportation service provider database in which theinformation 65 about transportation service providers is recorded. Inthat case, the barcode does not the information 65 about transportationservice providers.

In reference with FIGS. 16-19, process of each method of providing taxicall service according to respective embodiment of the present inventionis illustrated below.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method of providing taxi call service usinga barcode according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

First, the terminal 10 reads the barcode 60 installed at station at stepS1600. That is, a user goes to the station to catch a taxi and set theterminal 10 in barcode recognizing mode and then moves the photographingunit 11 of the user the terminal on the barcode 60 installed at taxistation information board of the station, the photographing unit 11photographs image of the barcode and transform the barcode image todigital image data to transmit the digital image data to the decoder 13.

Next, the terminal 10 extracts the code information at step S1610. Thedecoder 13 of the user terminal 10 analyzes the digital image data ofthe barcode 60 received from the photographing unit 11 to obtain thecode information.

As described above, the code information includes the service identifier61, the station location information 63 and the information 65 abouttransportation service provider server, but may not include theinformation 65 about transportation service provider server, in casethat there are a plurality of transportation service providers.

The user terminal 10 transmits the obtained code information to theservice provider server 1330 at step S1620. The transmitting/receivingunit 19 transmits the user content request message 90, including thecode information received from the decoder 13, to the service providerserver 130 in response of transmitting/receiving control signal of thecontrol unit.

The service provider server 1330 analyzes the service identifier 61included in the received taxi call message and recognizes of servicetype at step S1630. If the recognized service type is the taxi callservice, the service provider server 1330 extracts the station locationinformation and the information about transportation service servercorresponding to the received code information with reference to theindex database at step S1650. If the recognized service type is not thetaxi call service, the service provider server 1330 processes procedurecorresponding to the recognized service at step S1640.

The service provider server 1330 transmits the taxi call message,including the extracted station location information, to thetransportation service provider server 1340.

The transportation service provider server 1340 detects location oftaxis, which belongs to the transportation service provider, based onthe received taxi call message at step S1660. As described above, thetaxi, which belongs to the transportation service provider, includescommunication terminal, and the transportation service provider server1340 finally detects the location of the taxi terminal 1350 by one oflocation tracing methods described above at step S1660.

The transportation service provider server 1340 detects the nearest taxiterminal 1350 from the station location based on the detected locationinformation on taxi terminal 1350, and transmits the taxi call message,including the station location information, to the taxi terminal 1350 atstep S1670.

The transportation service provider server 1340 transmits a taxi callacknowledgement message to the user terminal 10, if the taxi call isdone successfully, to notify that the taxi call request was served atstep S1680. The taxi call acknowledgement message may includeinformation on arrival prediction time. Also, the taxi terminal cantransmit the taxi call acknowledgement message to the user 10 directly.

FIG. 17 is a detail flowchart of the step S1655, in case that there area plurality of transportation service providers.

The service provider server 1330 transmits the taxi call message whichincludes the station location information extracted from the codeinformation, received from the user terminal 10, to a plurality oftransportation service provider servers 1340 at step 1700.

If the service provider server 1330 receives taxi call request messagefrom one of a plurality of transportation service provider servers, forexample, receives taxi call request message from A transportationservice provider server 1340 at the first at step S1710, the serviceprovider server 1330 selects the A transportation service providerserver 1340 as the assigned transportation service provider at stepS1720

If the assigned transportation service provider is selected, the serviceprovider server 1330 transmits taxi call cancel message to the othertransportation service provider server(s) 1340 (for example, Btransportation service provider server in FIG. 17) at step 1730. If thetaxi call service is completed, the service provider server 1330 doesbilling procedure for the A transportation service provider server 1340at step S1740.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a method of providing taxi call service usinga barcode according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

First, the terminal 10 reads the barcode 60 installed at station at stepS1800. As described above, a user goes to the station to catch a taxiand set the terminal 10 in barcode recognizing mode and then moves thephotographing unit 11 of the user the terminal on the barcode 60installed at taxi station information board of the station, thephotographing unit 11 photographs image of the barcode and transform thebarcode image to digital image data to transmit the digital image datato the decoder 13.

Next, the terminal 10 extracts the code information at step S1810. Thedecoder 13 of the user terminal 10 analyzes the digital image data ofthe barcode 60 received from the photographing unit 11 to obtain thecode information.

As same as the sixth embodiment of the present invention, the codeinformation includes the service identifier 61, the station locationinformation 63 and the information 65 about transportation serviceprovider server, but may not include the information 65 abouttransportation service provider server, in case that there are aplurality of transportation service providers.

The user terminal 10 transmits the extracted code information to theservice provider server 1330 at step S1820. The transmitting/receivingunit 19 transmits the user content request message 90, including thecode information received from the decoder 13, to the service providerserver 1330 in response of transmitting/receiving control signal of thecontrol unit.

The service provider server 1330 analyzes the service identifier 61included in the received taxi call message to recognize service type. Ifthe recognized service type is the taxi call service, the serviceprovider server 1330 extracts the station location information and theinformation about transportation service server 1340 corresponding tothe received code information with reference to the index database atstep S1830. If the recognized service type is not the taxi call service,the service provider server 1330 processes procedure corresponding tothe recognized service at step S1840.

The service provider server 1330 transmits the extracted stationlocation information and the transportation service provider informationto the user terminal 10 at step S1850, and then the user terminal 10transmits the taxi call message, including the station locationinformation to the transportation service provider server 1340corresponding to the transportation service provider information at stepat step S1860.

The transportation service provider server 1340 detects location oftaxis, which belongs to the transportation service provider, based onthe received taxi call message at step S1870. As same as the sixthembodiment of the present invention, the taxi, which belongs to thetransportation service provider, includes communication terminal, andthe transportation service provider server 1340 detects the location ofthe taxi terminal 1350 by one of location tracing methods describedabove and finally detects the location of the taxi.

The transportation service provider server 1340 detects the nearest taxiterminal 1350 from the station location based on the detected locationinformation on taxi terminal 1350, and transmits the taxi call message,including the station location information, to the taxi terminal 1350 atstep S1880.

The transportation service provider server 1340 transmits a taxi callacknowledgement message to the user terminal 10, if the taxi call isdone successfully, to notify that the taxi call request was served atstep S1890. The taxi call acknowledgement message may includeinformation on arrival prediction time. Also, the taxi terminal cantransmit the taxi call acknowledgement message to the user 10 directly.

Although it's not shown separately, the seventh embodiment of thepresent invention can include the procedures as shown in FIG. 17, incase that there are a plurality of transportation service providers.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart of a method of providing taxi call service usinga barcode according to a eighth embodiment of the present invention.

First, the terminal 10 reads the barcode 60 installed at station at stepS1900. As described above, a user goes to the station to catch a taxiand set the terminal 10 in barcode recognizing mode and then moves thephotographing unit 11 of the user the terminal on the barcode 60installed at taxi station information board of the station, thephotographing unit 11 photographs image of the barcode and transform thebarcode image to digital image data to transmit the digital image datato the decoder 13.

Next, the terminal 10 extracts the code information at step S1910. Thedecoder 13 of the user terminal 10 analyzes the digital image data ofthe barcode 60 received from the photographing unit 11 to obtain thecode information.

As not same as the first embodiment of the present invention, the codeinformation includes the service identifier 61 and the station locationinformation 63 but does not include the information 65 on transportationservice provider server.

The user terminal 10 transmits the extracted code information to theservice provider server 1330 at step S1920. The transmitting/receivingunit 19 transmits the user content request message 90, including thecode information received from the decoder 13, to the service providerserver 1330 in response of transmitting/receiving control signal of thecontrol unit.

The service provider server 1330 analyzes the service identifier 61included in the received taxi call message to recognize service type. Ifthe recognized service type is the taxi call service, the serviceprovider server 1330 extracts the station location information and theinformation about transportation service server 1340 corresponding tothe received code information with reference to the index database atstep S1930. If the recognized service type is not the taxi call service,the service provider server 1330 processes procedure corresponding tothe recognized service at step S1940.

The service provider server 1330 detects the location of the taxiterminal 1350 by one of location tracing methods described above andfinally detects the location of the taxi at step S1950. As describedabove, in case that the web server which the communication serviceprovider operates is the service provider server, the service providerserver 1330 can easily trace the present location of the taxi terminal1350 by Cell ID which is location tracing method using mobilecommunication network 20.

The service provider server 1330 detects the nearest taxi terminal 1350from the station location based on the detected location information ontaxi terminal 1350, and transmits the taxi call message, including thestation location information, to the taxi terminal 1350 at step S1960.

The service provider server 1330 transmits a taxi call acknowledgementmessage to the user terminal 10, if the taxi call is done successfully,to notify that the taxi call request was served at step S1970. The taxicall acknowledgement message may include information on arrivalprediction time. Also, in case of the seventh embodiment of the presentinvention as same as the fifth and the sixth embodiments of the presentinvention the taxi terminal can transmit the taxi call acknowledgementmessage to the user 10 directly.

The embodiments of the present invention described above have beendisclosed that the barcode at taxi station is read. But, those skilledin the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions andsubstitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spiritof the invention. For example, it is possible that the barcode can beinstalled at any places such as public telephone booth, the entrance ofsubway, bus stop and etc, and the taxi call service can be providedusing the barcode installed at any places.

In this embodiment, it has been described for an example of taxi callservice. However, it is natural that the present invention can beapplied to various call services, such as express parcel service,motorcycle delivery service, delivery service, etc.

FIG. 20 is a construction view of the system for providing personalcontact information using a barcode 60 according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

As shown in FIG. 20, the system for providing personal contactinformation using the barcode 60 according to the present inventioncomprises a user terminal 10, a predetermined terminal 30, a agentcomputer 40 and a service provider server 2060.

The user terminal 10 and the predetermined terminal 30, which are mobilecommunication terminals connected to the service provider server 2060through a communication network 20 including a wireless communicationnetwork and a wired communication network, transmits and receivesinformation to and from the service provider 2060 through thecommunication network 20. A wireless communication terminal, such as amobile terminal, a Personal Communications Service (PCS) and a PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), can be used as the user terminal 10.

The terminals 10, 30 used in the present invention have a function ofreading and decoding the barcode 60, so that the terminals 10, 30 readthe barcode 60 recorded on a business card, extracts code informationrecorded on the barcode 60, and transmits the extracted code informationto the service provider 2060 through the communication network 20. Thedetailed construction of each terminal 10, 30 were descried withreference to FIG. 3. Further, a Personal Computer (PC) or a notebookcomputer, as well as the mobile terminal, can be used as the terminals10,30.

The agent computer 40 is connected to the service provider server 2060through a network using TCP/IP or PPP. Internet, LAN and MAN belong tothe network. Internet is most generally used. The agent computer 40 isused when a user want to get the barcode 60 through it on-internet. Theagent computer 40 includes a barcode issue machine, so issues thebusiness card, in which the barcode 60 is recorded, by recording thebarcode 60 generated by the service provider server 2060 on apredetermined part of the business card.

The service provider server 2060 is a computer provided in a serviceprovider that provides the service for providing user contactinformation of the present invention, receives a barcode issue requestmessage from the user terminal 10 using the communication network 20,generates and transmits the barcode 60 corresponding to the barcodeissue request message to the user terminal 10. Furthermore, the serviceprovider server 2060 receives user contact information request messageincluding the code information, which is generated by decoding thebarcodes 60, from the predetermined terminal 30 and extracts usercontact information by analyzing the code pattern and transmits the usercontact information to the predetermined terminal 30. In this case, theservice provider server 2060 may be the computer of a service providerindependent from a communication service provider (not shown) thatprovides the communication network 20, or the computer of acommunication service provider if the communication service providerpersonally provides the service using the communication network 20 andthe computer thereof.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server 2060 of FIG. 20. As shown in FIG. 21, theservice provider server 2060 includes a barcode generating unit 2061, acode distribution unit 2062, a barcode image analyzing unit 2063, a codeinformation analyzing unit 2065, a transmitting/receiving unit 2066, acode information database managing unit 2067 and a control unit 2064.

The barcode generating unit 2061 is adapted to generate the barcode 60including user contact information which is included in the barcodeissue request message received from the user terminal 10.

The barcode generating unit 2061 generates the code information by codesthe user contact information, and then generates a barcode image 1005corresponding to the code information. In this case, the user contactinformation can be telephone number, home address, office address,e-mail address and homepage's address. That is, the barcode generatingunit 2061 converts these user contact information into binary codes tocreate a 2-dimensional barcode image.

The code distribution unit 2062, adapted to analyze a service identifier2221 included in a user contact information request message 2220received from the predetermined terminal 30 to classify service types,analyzes the service identifier 1001, recognizes that the service typeis a user contact information providing service, and transmits thereceived barcode image or code information 2225 to the barcode imageanalyzing unit 2063 and the code information analyzing unit 2065according to embodiments.

The barcode image analyzing unit 2063 is adapted to receive the barcodeimage photographed by a photographing unit 11, extract code information2225 from the barcode image and transmit the code information to thecode information analyzing unit 2065, in a case where a decoder 13 fordecoding the barcode 60 is not provided in the predetermined terminal30.

The code information analyzing unit 2065 functions to analyze the codeinformation received from the barcode image analyzing unit 2063 andextract the user contact information from the analyzed code information.The code information analyzing unit 2065 extracts the user contactinformation corresponding to the code information with reference to acode information database 2070 storing therein the user contactinformation corresponding to the received code information.

The transmitting/receiving unit 2066 functions to receive the barcodeissue request message from the user terminal 10 and transmit thegenerated barcode to the user terminal 10. And thetransmitting/receiving unit 2066 functions to receive the user contactinformation request message from the predetermined terminal 30 andtransmit the extracted user contact information to the predeterminedterminal 30.

The code information database managing unit 2067 functions to manage thecode information database 2070 storing therein personal connection 8corresponding to code information.

The control unit 2064 is adapted to control the respective components,and operated to generate a barcode generating control signalcorresponding to the received barcode issue request message, transmitsthe barcode generating control signal to the barcode generating unit2061, generates a user contact information extracting control signalcorresponding to the received user contact information request messageand transmits the user contact information extracting control signal tothe code information analyzing unit 2065.

The detail construction of the user terminal 10 is same as describedabove in relation to FIG. 3. But, the user interface unit 17 functionsto provide the user interface so as to allow the user to access to theservice provider server 2060 in order to get issued the barcode 60, inwhich user contact information is recorded, or in order to receive usercontact information by reading the barcode 60 displayed on a businesscard or computer screen and by transmit the decoded code information.The transmitting/receiving unit 19 functions to transmit the userconnection request message 2220, including the code information receivedfrom the decoder 13, to the service provider server 2060. Further, thetransmitting/receiving unit 19 transmits a barcode issue request messageincluding user contact information, to the service provider server 2060at a barcode issuing step.

FIG. 22 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of theuser contact information request message 2220.

As shown in FIG. 22, in the user contact information request message2220, a service identifier 2221, terminal information 2223 and codeinformation 2225 are recorded.

The service identifier 2221 is a part in which a service type theservice provider server 2060 should provide is recorded. The serviceprovider server 2060 can provide a plurality of services, which can beprovided using the barcode 60, such as the user contact informationproviding service, the taxi call service, the advertising service, thecommodity purchase connecting service. For example, four bits areallocated to the service identifier 2221, so that 0001, 0010, 0011 and0100 can be used as identifiers to represent the taxi call service, theadvertising service, the purchase connection service, and the usercontact information providing service, respectively. In this case, thenumber of bits allocated to the service identifier 2221 can be properlychanged depending on the types of services which the service providerserver 2060 provides or if necessary.

The terminal information 2223 is the phone number of the predeterminedterminal 30.

The code information 2225 is generated by decoding the barcode 60 in thedecoder 13 in the predetermined terminal 30, and includes data relatedto the user contact information. In this case, the user contactinformation is information source to make a contact with the user. Theuser contact information can be telephone number, home address, officeaddress, e-mail address and homepage's address.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of a barcode issue procedure by accessing theservice provider server 2060 through the user terminal 10.

First, the user terminal 10 transmits the barcode issue request messageincluding itself connection information to the service provider server2060 at step S2300. As described above, the connection information maybe name, address, phone number, e-mail address, homepage address.

The service provider server 2060 generates the code information bycoding the user contact information included in the received barcodeissue request message at step S2310, and generates the barcode imagecorresponding to the code information at step S2320. That is, thebarcode generating unit 2061 of the service provider server 2060generates two dimensional barcode by transforming the connectioninformation such as name, address, telephone number, home address,office address, e-mail address and homepage's address to binary code.

If the barcode image is generated, the service provider server 2060transmits the generated barcode image to the user terminal 10 at stepS2330. Or the service provider server 2060 can transmit the barcodeimage to pre-designated e-mail, in case that the user the designated thee-mail receive the barcode image.

The user terminal 10 stores the received barcode image in memory at stepS2340. The user transmits the stored barcode image to a computer orprints out the stored barcode image, thus uses the stored barcode as anelectronic business card or attaches the printed barcode 60 to abusiness card and makes a call or makes a access to homepage by readingbarcode.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart of a business card, in which the barcode isrecorded, issue procedure by accessing the service provider server 2060through the agent computer 40.

First, the agent computer 40 transmits the barcode issue request messageincluding user contact information received from the user to the serviceprovider server 2060 at step S2400. As described above, the user contactinformation may be name, address, phone number, e-mail address, homepageaddress.

The service provider server 2060 generates the code information bycoding the user contact information included in the received barcodeissue request message at step S2410, and generates the barcode imagecorresponding to the code information at step S2420. That is, thebarcode generating unit 2061 of the service provider server 2060generates two dimensional barcode to binary code by transforming theconnection information such as name, address, telephone number, homeaddress, office address, e-mail address and homepage's address.

If the barcode image is generated, the service provider server 2060transmits the generated barcode image to the agent computer 40 at stepS2430. The agent computer 40 stores the received barcode image in memoryand transmits the received barcode image to a barcode issue machine atstep S2440. The barcode issue machine completes the business card, inwhich the barcode 60 is recorded, by recording the received barcodeimage in a predetermined part of the printed business card at stepS2450.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart of a method of providing personal contactinformation using a barcode according to a ninth embodiment of thepresent invention. The ninth embodiment of the present invention is acase that the decoder 13 is included in the predetermined terminal 30.

First, the predetermined terminal 30 photographs the barcode 60 recordedin the business card at step S2500. For example, the predeterminedterminal user photographs the barcode part of the business card usingthe photographing unit 11, such as a camera provided in the terminal, bypressing a photographing button after selecting a barcode menu on thepredetermined terminal 30.

The decoder 13 provided in the predetermined terminal 30 decodes thephotographed barcode image and extracts the code information at stepS2510, and then transmits the user contact information request messageincluding the code information to the service provider server 2060 atsteps S2520.

The service provider server 2060 analyzes a service identifier 2221included in the received connection information request message at stepS2530. That is, the code distribution unit 2062 in the service providerserver 2060 recognizes that a service type is the connection informationproviding service by analyzing the service identifier 2221, andtransmits the code information 2225 to the code information analyzingunit 2065.

The code information analyzing unit 2065 analyzes the received codeinformation and extracts the user contact information at steps S2540 andS2550. That is, the code information analyzing unit 2065 extracts theuser contact information corresponding to the received code information2225 from the code information database 2070 with reference to the codeinformation database 2070.

The service provider server 2060 transmits the extracted user contactinformation to the predetermined terminal 30 at step S2560.

Some messages, for example a storing menu and connecting menu, aredisplayed that ask to the predetermined terminal user whether he(she)wants to store the user contact information after it is displayed andwhether he(she) wants to be accessed to the selected user contactinformation while it is stored, on screen of the predetermined terminal30 received user contact information. If the user selects the usercontact information to which he(she) wants to be accessed, and selectsthe connecting menu, he(she) is accessed to the selected user contactinformation while it is stored at step S2570. If the user selects thestoring menu, the user contact information is stored at step S2580.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart of a method of providing personal contactinformation using a barcode according to a tenth embodiment of thepresent invention. The tenth embodiment of the present invention is acase that the decoder 13 is not included in the predetermined terminal30.

First, the predetermined terminal 30 photographs the barcode 60 recordedin the business card at step S2600. For example, the predeterminedterminal user photographs the barcode part of the business card usingthe photographing unit 11, such as a camera provided in the terminal, bypressing a photographing button after selecting a barcode menu on thepredetermined terminal 30.

The predetermined terminal 30 transmits the user contact informationrequest message including the code information to the service providerserver 2060 at step S2610.

The service provider server 2060 analyzes a service identifier 2221included in the received connection information request message at stepS2620. That is, the code distribution unit 2062 in the service providerserver 2060 recognizes that a service type is the connection informationproviding service by analyzing the service identifier 2221, andtransmits the barcode image code included in the received connectioninformation request message to the barcode image analyzing unit 2063.

The barcode image analyzing unit 2063 analyzes the received barcodeimage and extracts the code information 2225, and then transmits thecode information 2225 to the code information analyzing unit 2065.

The code information analyzing unit 2065 extracts the user contactinformation corresponding to the received barcode image from the codeinformation database 2070 with reference to the code informationdatabase 2070 at steps S2640 and S2650. The service provider server 2060transmits the extracted user contact information to the predeterminedterminal 30 at step S2660.

Some messages, for example a storing menu and connecting menu, aredisplayed that ask to the predetermined terminal user whether he(she)wants to store the user contact information after it is displayed andwhether he(she) wants to be accessed to the selected user contactinformation while it is stored, on screen of the predetermined terminal30 received user contact information. If the user selects the usercontact information to which he(she) wants to be accessed, and selectsthe connecting menu, he(she) is accessed to the selected user contactinformation while it is stored at step S2670. If the user selects thestoring menu, the user contact information is stored at step S2680.

In the tenth embodiment of the present invention, the barcode imageanalyzing unit 2063 analyzes the code information 2225 from the barcodeimage and transmits the code information 2225 to the code informationanalyzing unit 2065. But it's possible that the barcode image analyzingunit 2063 extracts the user contact information from the barcode imagedirectly.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart that updating procedure of the user contactinformation and providing procedure of the updated user contactinformation are shown.

As shown in FIG. 7, the user terminal 10 transmits the user contactinformation updating request message to the service provider server 2060at step S2700. That is, the user transmits the changed connectioninformation to the service provider server 2060 and requests theupdating of the user contact information, in case that the user contactinformation, such as telephone number or e-mail, has changed.

The service provider server 2060 extracts the user contact informationincluded in the received user contact information updating requestmessage, and then updates user contact information by deleting the usercontact information stored in the code information database and storingthe extracted user contact information in the code information databasenewly at step S2710.

The predetermined terminal 30 photographs the code pattern 60 installedat business card and decodes the code pattern, and then transmits theuser contact information request message including the code information2225 to the service provider server 2060 at step S2720.

Finally, the service provider server 2060 analyzes the received codeinformation 2225 to extract the user contact information correspondingthe code information 2225 from the code information database 2070 atstep S2730, and transmits the user contact information to thepredetermined terminal 30 at step S2740. According to the predeterminedterminal user's choice, the predetermined terminal 30 can access to thereceived user contact information (for example making a call oraccessing to homepage etc) or store the user contact information inmemory.

FIG. 28 is the first construction view of a billing system using a codepattern according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 28, the first construction view of a billing systemusing a code pattern according to the present invention comprises a userterminal 10, a service provider server 2830 and a billing server 2880.

The user terminal 10, which is mobile communication terminal connectedto the service provider server 2830 through a communication network 20including a wireless communication network and a wired communicationnetwork, transmits and receives information to and from the serviceprovider 2830 through the communication network 20. A wirelesscommunication terminal, such as a mobile terminal, a PersonalCommunications Service (PCS) and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), canbe used as the user terminal 10. The user terminal 10 used in thepresent invention has a function of reading and decoding the barcode 60,so that the user terminal 10 reads the barcode 60 installed at one sideof a GIRO paper to extract billing information and the service providerserver information recorded on the barcode 60, and accesses to theservice provider 2830 and requests payment service.

The service provider server 2830 is a computer provided in a serviceprovider that provides the payment service using the code patternaccording to the present, receives a payment request message 3200 fromthe user terminal through the communication network 20 and processes thepayment transaction corresponding to the payment request message. Inthis case, the service provider server 2830 may be the computer of aservice provider independent from a communication service provider (notshown) that provides the communication network 20, or the computer of acommunication service provider if the communication service providerpersonally provides the service using the communication network 20 andthe computer thereof. And in this case, the service provider server 2830can process the payment transaction directly related to itself orprovide payment service for other payment requestor. In the latter case,it is preferred that the service provider server 2830 should receivespayer information and the billing information from the payment requestorand store them in memory.

FIG. 29 is the second construction view of a billing system using a codepattern according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 29, the second construction view of a billing systemusing a code pattern according to the present invention comprises theuser terminal 10, the service provider server 2830 and a paymentprocessing apparatus 2870.

The user terminal 10 transmits the barcode issue request message for getissued the barcode 60, in which billing information is recorded, to theservice provider server 2830.

The service provider server 2830 generates the barcode corresponding tothe barcode issue request message received from the user terminal 10,and transmits the barcode to the user terminal 10.

The payment processing apparatus 2870 functions to do payment processingby reading the barcode 60 displayed on the user terminal screen, may beATM or CD apparatus provided in bank. The detailed construction of thepayment processing apparatus 2870 is described later with reference toFIG. 31.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of theservice provider server 2830 of FIG. 28. As shown in FIG. 30, theservice provider server 2830 includes a barcode generating unit 2831, acode distribution unit 2832, a barcode image analyzing unit 2833, a codeinformation analyzing unit 2835, a transmitting/receiving unit 2836, aproduct information database managing unit 2837 and a control unit 2834.

The barcode generating unit 2831 is adapted to generate the barcode 60including user information and billing information. The barcodegenerating unit 2831 generates the code information by coding the userinformation and the billing information, and then generates a barcodeimage corresponding to the code information. In this case, the billinginformation includes a billing item, billing amount, billing term andetc.

The code distribution unit 2832, adapted to analyze a service identifier3201 included in the payment request message 3200 received from the userterminal 10 to classify service types, analyzes the service identifier3201, recognizes that the service type is a payment service, andtransmits the barcode image to the barcode image analyzing unit 2833 ifthe received product information includes the barcode image.

The barcode image analyzing unit 2833 is adapted to receive the barcodeimage 3205 photographed by a photographing unit 1, extract codeinformation from the barcode image and transmit the code information tothe code information analyzing unit 2835, in a case where a decoder 13for decoding the barcode 60 is not provided in the predeterminedterminal 30.

The code information analyzing unit 2835 functions to analyze the codeinformation received from the barcode image analyzing unit 2833 andextract the user information and the billing information from theanalyzed code information.

And, the code information analyzing unit 2835 compares the extractedbilling information with the billing information extracted from abilling information database 2840, and checks if the both are same.

The transmitting/receiving unit 2836 functions to receive/transmit datarelated to the barcode issue request message and the payment processingfrom/to the user terminal 10. That is, the transmitting/receiving unit2836 receives the barcode issue request message from user terminal 10and transmits the barcode 60 generated in corresponding to the barcodeissue request message to the user terminal 10.

The billing information database managing unit 2837 functions to managethe billing information database 2840 for storing the user informationand the billing information.

The control unit 2834 is adapted to control the respective components,and operated to generate a barcode generating control signal forgenerating the barcode corresponding to the received barcode issuerequest message, transmits the barcode generating control signal to thebarcode generating unit 2831, generates a barcode image analyzingcontrol signal and transmits the barcode image analyzing control signalto the barcode image analyzing unit 2833, if the barcode image 3205 istransmitted from the user terminal 10.

In the present embodiment, the barcode image analyzing unit 2833 isseparate from the code information analyzing unit 2835. But, it'spossible that the barcode image analyzing unit 2833 has a function thatanalyze the code information by unifying the both functions.

The detail construction of the user terminal 10 is same as describedabove in relation to FIG. 3. But, the decoder 13 functions to analyzethe barcode image received from the photographing unit 11 and to extractthe billing information. In case that the user terminal 10 does notinclude the decoder 13, the service provider server 2830 should havemeans for decoding the barcode. The user interface unit 17 functions toprovide the user interface so as to allow the user to access the serviceprovider server 2830 and to transmit the barcode issue request messageand the payment request message.

The transmitting/receiving unit 19 functions to transmit the barcodeissue request message and the payment request message to the serviceprovider server 2830.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing the internal construction of thepayment processing apparatus 2870. As shown in FIG. 31, the paymentprocessing apparatus 2870 includes a barcode recognizing unit 2871, apayment method input unit 2873, a code information analyzing unit 2875,a payment processing unit 2876 and a control unit 2879.

The barcode recognizing unit 2871 is adapted to analyze the code patternimage displayed on the user terminal screen and extract the codeinformation corresponding to code pattern image. The barcode recognizingunit 2871 may be a barcode reader or camera. In other words, if the userdisplays the barcode 60 stored in the user terminal 10 on screen andmove the screen to the barcode recognizing unit 2871, the barcoderecognizing unit 2871 reads the barcode 60.

The payment method input unit 2873 is a part for inputting the paymentmethod information of the user. The user's payment method may be, forexample, credit card, debit card, account book, cash, etc, Common cardor account book entrance of ATM can be used as the payment method inputunit 2873.

The code information analyzing unit 2875 is a part that extracts theuser information and the billing information included in the codeinformation transmitted from the barcode recognizing unit 2871 andtransmits the user information and the billing information to thepayment processing unit 2877.

The payment processing unit 2877 is a part that process the paymenttransaction corresponding to the use information, billing informationand payment method information received from the code informationanalyzing unit 2875.

The control unit 2879 is adapted to control the respective components,and generates a control signal for reading the code pattern imagedisplayed on the user terminal screen to transmit the control signal tothe barcode recognizing unit 2871, and generates a control signal foranalyzing the code information to transmit the control signal to thecode information analyzing unit 2875. Also, the control unit 2879 apayment processing control signal to the payment processing unit 2877 inorder that the payment processing can be done.

FIG. 32 is a view conceptually showing the data configuration of thepayment request message 3200.

As shown in FIG. 32, in the payment request message 3200, a serviceidentifier 3201, terminal information 3203 and barcode image 3205 arerecorded.

The service identifier 2221 is a part in which a service type theservice provider server 2830 should provide is recorded. The serviceprovider server 2830 can provide a plurality of services, which can beprovided using the barcode 60, such as the user contact informationproviding service, the taxi call service, the advertising service, theproduct information providing service, the payment service, etc. Forexample, four bits are allocated to the service identifier 3201, so that0001, 0010, 0011, 0100 and 0101 can be used as identifiers to representthe taxi call service, the advertising service, the product informationproviding service, and the payment service, respectively. So, theservice identifier 3201 in this embodiment may be 0101. In this case,the number of bits allocated to the service identifier 3201 can beproperly changed depending on the types of services which the serviceprovider server 2830 provides or if necessary.

The terminal information 3203 is the phone number of the user terminal10. The barcode image 3205 is obtained by photographing the barcode 60by the photographing unit 11 and by converting the photographed barcode60 into digital image data. As described above, the barcode image 3205is required when the user terminal 10 is not provided with the decoder13, while it is not required when the user terminal is provided with thedecoder 13.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart of a code pattern, in which billing informationis recorded, issue procedure.

The service provider server 2830 generates the code informationincluding payer information and billing information corresponding to thepayer at step S3300, and generates the barcode 60 corresponding to thecode information at step S3310.

If the payer who has to pay charge accesses the service provider server2830 through the user terminal 10 to know billing amount and paymentterm and transmit billing request message to the service provider server2830 at step S3320, the service provider server 2830 extracts thebilling amount and payment term from the billing database to transmitthe billing amount and payment term to the user terminal 10.

The user, who checked the billing amount and payment term, transmitsbarcode issue request message to the service provider server 2830through the user terminal 10 at step S3350.

The service provider server 2830 extracts the barcode 60 from thebilling database 2840 based on the received barcode issue requestmessage and transmits the extracted barcode 60 to the user terminal 10at step S3360, S3370.

If the user terminal 10 receives the barcode 60 from the serviceprovider server 2830, the user terminal 10 displays the barcode 60 onscreen and stores the received barcode in memory at step S3380.

In this embodiment, the service provider server 2830 generates thebarcode 60 and extracts the barcode 60 to transmit to the user terminal10 in response of the request from the user terminal 10. However, it isclearly possible that after receiving the barcode issue request messagefrom the user terminal 10, the service provider server 2830 generatesthe barcode 60 in response of the barcode issue request message. Also,it is clearly possible that service provider server 2830 receives thebarcode generated by a code issue server and transmits the barcode 60 tothe user terminal 10, not generating the barcode 60 directly.

Payment service procedure using code pattern according to respectiveembodiment of the present invention is described below.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart of a method of providing payment service usingcode pattern according to a eleventh embodiment of the presentinvention. The method shown in FIG. 34 is a case that paymenttransaction is processed by the payment processing unit 2870.

First, the barcode recognizing unit 2871, located in one side of thepayment processing unit 2870, reads the barcodes 60 displayed on theuser terminal screen at step S3400. In other words, the user display thebarcode 60, received from the service provider server 2830 shown in FIG.33 and stored, on the user terminal screen, and moves the screen to thebarcode recognizing unit 2871 located in one side of the paymentprocessing apparatus 2870, such as ATM in bank. If so, the barcoderecognizing unit 2871 scans or photographs the barcode, and analyzes thebarcode 60 to extract the code information from the barcode 60 at stepS3410.

The code information analyzing unit 2875 provided in the paymentprocessing apparatus 2870 analyzes the code information and extracts theuser information and billing information from the code information totransmit the user information and billing information to paymentprocessing unit 2877 at step S3420.

Next, receiving the payment method, that is means for paying a bill suchas credit card, account book, cash etc, from the user, the paymentmethod input unit 2873 of the payment processing apparatus 2870transmits the input payment information to the payment processing unit2877 at step S3430.

The payment processing unit 2877 processes the payment transaction basedon the received use information, billing information and payment methodinformation at step S3440.

The payment processing procedure is done as same as a conventionalprocedure in case of transferring money between different accounts byinputting a card or an account book into ATM. The conventional procedureis well known to those skilled in the art. So the description abut thepayment processing procedure is omitted.

FIG. 35 is a flowchart of a method of paying a bill using code patternaccording to a twelfth embodiment of the present invention. The twelfthembodiment of the present invention is a case that the decoder 13 isincluded in the user terminal 10.

First, the user terminal 10 photographs the barcode 60 recorded in oneside of GIRO paper at step S3500. For example, the user photographs thebarcode part of GIRO paper using the photographing unit 11, such as acamera provided in the terminal, by pressing a photographing buttonafter selecting a barcode menu on the user terminal 10.

The decoder 13 provided in the user terminal 10 decodes the photographedbarcode image and extracts the code information at step S3510, and thenextracts the billing information and service provider server informationfrom the code information at step S3520.

The user terminal 10 accesses the service provider server 2830 based onthe extracted service provider server information and transmits thepayment request message 3200 to the service provider server 2830 atsteps S3530.

The service provider server 2830 analyzes a service identifier 3201included in the received payment request message and recognizes theservice type at step S35400. That is, the code distribution unit 2832 inthe service provider server 2830 recognizes that a service type is thepayment service by analyzing the service identifier 3201, and notifiesthe fact that the service type is the payment service to the controlunit 2834.

The control unit 2834 of the service provider server 2830 checks whetherthe billing information received from the user terminal 10 and thebilling information stored in the billing information database are sameor not at step S3550.

If the both are not same, the service provider server 2830 transmits apayment prohibition message to the user terminal 10 at step S3560. Ifthe both are same, the service provider server 2830 transmits a paymentrequest message including the user information and billing informationto the payment server 2880 at step S3570.

Finally, the payment server 2880 processes the corresponding paymenttransaction based on the received payment request message at step S3580,and transmits a payment completion message to the service providerserver 2830 at step S3590, if the payment transaction is done. Theservice provider server 2830 transmits the payment completion message tothe user terminal 10 at step S3595.

FIG. 36 is a flowchart of a method of paying a bill using code patternaccording to a thirteenth embodiment of the present invention. Thethirteenth embodiment of the present invention is a case that thedecoder 13 is not included in the user terminal 10.

First, the user terminal 10 photographs the barcode 60 recorded in oneside of GIRO paper at step S3600. For example, the user photographs thebarcode part of GIRO paper using the photographing unit 11, such as acamera provided in the terminal, by pressing a photographing buttonafter selecting a barcode menu on the user terminal 10.

The user terminal 10 transmits the payment request message including thephotographed barcode image to the service provider server 2830 at stepS3610.

The service provider server 2830 analyzes a service identifier 3201included in the received payment request message and recognizes theservice type at step S3620. That is, the code distribution unit 2832 ofthe service provider server 2830 recognizes that a service type is thepayment service by analyzing the service identifier 3201, and transmitsthe barcode image 3205 included in the received payment request messageto the barcode image analyzing unit 2833.

The barcode image analyzing unit 2833 analyzes the received barcodeimage 3205 to extract code information and transmit the code informationto the code information analyzing unit 2835 at step S3630.

The code information analyzing unit 2835 analyzes the received codeinformation and extract the user information and the billing informationcorresponding to the code information at step S3640. In other words, thecode information analyzing unit 2835 extracts the user information andbilling information corresponding to the received code information fromthe billing information database 2840 in reference with the billingdatabase 2840

The service provider server 2830 transmits a payment request messageincluding the extracted user information and billing information to thepayment server at step S3650.

Finally, the payment server 2880 processes the corresponding paymenttransaction based on the received payment request message at step S3660,and transmits a payment completion message to the service providerserver 2830 at step S3670, if the payment transaction is done. Theservice provider server 2830 transmits the payment completion message tothe user terminal 10 at step S3680.

In these embodiments, it has been described for an example of mobilephone using wireless communication network. However, it is possible tobe provided with the product information providing service describedabove, using wire/wireless phone or public phone.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendisclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas disclosed in the accompanying claims.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, by using mobileterminal having camera and code pattern having information, a variousand convenient mobile additional service can be provided to mobileterminal user.

Concretely, the method for providing content using barcode can beprovided, which makes user connect to internet site and buy the productby making mobile terminal read barcode which has information of internetsite about product advertisement.

Also, in one embodiment of the present invention, the method forproviding content using barcode can be provided, which makes mobileterminal get directly the data in printed matter and the multi mediadata information by reading the barcode in said printed matter.

In one embodiment, the method for providing content using barcode can beprovided, which makes mobile terminal get directly various web pageinformation related to the data in printed matter and the multi mediadata information by reading the barcode in said printed matter.

In one embodiment, the method for providing content using barcode can beprovided, which is useful in the usual mobile terminal.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for providing geographicalinformation using code pattern can be provided, which makes user get thetourist resort information by taking picture of and decoding the codepattern recorded in special tourist resort information of tour guidebookand connecting with the web site providing tourist resort information.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for providing geographicalinformation using code pattern can be provided, which makers user getthe local information by taking picture of and decoding the code patternrecorded in local directional sign and connecting with the web siteproviding the local information.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for providing geographicalinformation using code pattern can be provided, which makes user findgeographical information easily through finding geographical informationusing code pattern which need to input or remember the details of website URL.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for providing geographicalinformation using code pattern can be provided, which makes user getgeographical information service without the component for decoding codepattern in mobile terminal, by makes mobile terminal transfer the codepattern image taken picture of code pattern to service provider serverand get the according geographical information from service providerserver.

In one embodiment, the method for providing taxi call service using codepattern can be provided, which makes user call taxi easily in spite ofknowing the telephone number of transfer businessman or web site URL byreading code pattern having transfer service provider server informationand transferring taxi call message to service provider server ortransfer service provider server.

In one embodiment, the method for providing taxi call service using codepattern can be provided, which calls taxi in a short time by makingservice provider server or transfer service provider server receivingtaxi call message from user terminal call the nearest taxi from theuser.

In one embodiment, the method for providing personal connectioninformation using barcode can be provided, which is useful in usualmobile terminal by using the camera attached to the usual mobileterminal, not using additional barcode reader.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for providing personalconnection information using barcode can be provided, which is useful inon-line by getting barcode having the user contact information throughinternet and in off-line by printing barcode and attach it to businesscard.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for providing personalconnection information using barcode can be provided, which simplifiesthe program for reading barcodes in mobile terminal and can use limitedmemory in mobile terminal effectively, by making the mobile terminalfind only code information from the barcode and get user connectioninformation according to code information from service provider server.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for providing personalconnection information using barcode can be provided, which makes userget contact information service without the component for readingbarcode in mobile terminal, by makes mobile terminal transfer the imagedata taken picture of barcode to service provider server and get theaccording user connection information from service provider server.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for payment using codepattern can be provided, which can pay charges easily, by making mobileterminal get code pattern having payment information through mobileinternet and by making code pattern reader in bank scan it.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for payment using codepattern can be provided, which has no need to have giro paper and nodanger to lose it, by payment using code pattern.

In one embodiment, the method and apparatus for payment using codepattern can be provided, which can pay charges in mobile internet, bymaking terminal take picture of code pattern attached to giro paper andtransfer it to service provider server.

While the above description has pointed out novel features of theinvention as applied to various embodiments, the skilled person willunderstand that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in theform and details of the device or process illustrated may be madewithout departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scopeof the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by theforegoing description. All variations coming within the meaning andrange of equivalency of the claims are embraced within their scope.

1. A method of providing personal contact information with the use of acode pattern, the method comprising: receiving a code pattern issuerequest message including user contact information from a user terminal;generating code information corresponding to the user contactinformation; generating a code pattern image corresponding to the codeinformation; transmitting the generated code pattern image to the userterminal; receiving a personal contact information request message,including the code pattern image, from a predetermined terminal, whereinthe code pattern image is obtained from a bar code contained in abusiness card; obtaining user contact information corresponding to thecode pattern image; and transmitting the contact information to thepredetermined terminal.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtainingcomprises: analyzing the code pattern image so as to obtain codeinformation corresponding to the code pattern image; and obtaining usercontact information corresponding to the code information.
 3. The methodof claim 2, wherein the user contact information comprises at least oneof the following: telephone number, home address, office address, e-mailaddress and website address.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising storing the generated code information in a code informationdatabase.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the code pattern is atwo-dimensional barcode.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the usercontact information request message further comprises a serviceidentifier for indicating a service type.
 7. The method of claim 6,further comprising: analyzing the service identifier; and recognizingthat the service type is a service for providing personal contactinformation.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving auser contact information updating request message including the changeduser contact information from the user terminal; and updating usercontact information stored in a memory in connection with the codeinformation to the changed user contact information.
 9. The method ofclaim 8, further comprising: receiving a user contact informationrequest message from a predetermined terminal; obtaining the updateduser contact information; and transmitting the obtained user contactinformation to the predetermined terminal.